1.1 First and second person personal pronouns

The forms 'þú' and 'þik' are the relatives of the English forms 'thou' and 'thee'.

And then there are the plural pronouns, still fairly similar to English:

1.person

2.person

Nominative

vér

þér

Accusative

oss

yðr

1.person

2.person

Nominative

we

you

Accusative

us

you

And finally a concept that doesn't exist in Modern English, dual pronouns:

1.person

2.person

Nominative

vit

þit

Accusative

okkr

ykkr

1.person

2.person

Nominative

we two

you two

Accusative

us two

you two

1.2 Plural of third person pronouns

We will now introduce the plural of the third person pronouns. As before we begin with English.

Singular

Plural

Nominative

he

she

it

they

they

they

Accusative

him

her

it

them

them

them

The reason for writing "they" out three times is that the plural of "he" is the same as the plural of "she" or the plural of "it", unlike Old Norse :

Singular

Plural

Nominative

hann

hon

þat

þeir

þær

þau

Accusative

hann

hana

þat

þá

þær

þau

Thus, many "hons" make a "þær" and many "hanns" make a "þeir" (to put it in silly terms). We are still only using the masculine pronoun as all nouns we have introduced are masculine.

1.3 Plural of nouns

Nouns, of course, have a plural form. The plural form declines in cases and can be with or without definitive article. We'll write up a table showing the declension of our strong masculine words. This time we will use a {stem + ending} scheme. The grammatical stem of a word is the word without grammatical ending.

Without article

With article

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Nom.

stem + r

stem + ar

stem + r + inn

stem + ar + nir

Acc.

stem

stem + a

stem + inn

stem + a + na

And then with the good old elf as the example.

Without article

With article

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Nom.

álfr

álfar

álfrinn

álfarnir

Acc.

álf

álfa

álfinn

álfana

Now you know eight different forms of each noun. This might be a bit overwhelming at first but if you immediately begin memorising the table above and work hard at the exercises it will soon be very familiar.

1.4 Some slightly irregular nouns

Some words of the strong masculine declension lack the nominative singular ending 'r'.

In order to make it completely clear what we mean we decline a sample word from this group. The word is 'jarl' and means 'earl'. The reason is probably that pronouncing "jarlr" would not be comfortable.

Without article

With article

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Nom.

jarl

jarlar

jarlinn

jarlarnir

Acc.

jarl

jarla

jarlinn

jarlana

The vocabulary also introduces the word 'geirr'. It is completely regular, so do not get confused by the two r's at the end. The first r is part of the stem whereas the second one is the nominative singular ending.

1.5 Maðr - an irregular noun

We will now introduce a masculine noun that in its declension does not follow the patterns already described. The word is 'maðr' and means 'human being' or 'person'.

Without article

With article

Singular

Plural

Singular

Plural

Nom.

maðr

menn

maðrinn

menninir

Acc.

mann

menn

manninn

mennina

Notice how the irregularity is similar to that of the corresponding English word, 'man'. Also notice that the endings for the article are very similar to those for the regular words. This is no coincidence, in fact the article declines in the same basic way for every word of the same gender.

The word 'maðr' is a very useful one and will help us make more interesting sentences.

1.6 Verbal conjugation

The form of a verb depends upon the subject in the sentence, so in Old Norse as it is in English. Let us give an example

Infinitive: (to) be

I am

we are

thou art

you are

he/she/it is

they are

We will now give the corresponding Old Norse verb; like its English counterpart, it is completely irregular.

Infinitive: (at) vera

ek em

vit/vér erum

þú ert

þit/þér eruð

hann/hon/þat er

þeir/þær/þau eru

Remember what everything means here. The plural of 'hann' is 'þeir' et cetera. Also note that the dual pronouns have the same conjugation as the plural ones.

Now we will look at more regular verbs. We don't have to remember every form of every verb; for now it will be sufficient for us to remember two; the infinitive and the first person singular. The endings are tacked on in the following way.

Infinitive: [form 1]

ek [form 2]

vit/vér [form 1] - a + um

þú [form 2] + r

þit/þér [form 1] - a + ið

hann/hon/þat [form 2] + r

þeir/þær/þau [form 1]

This code may be a bit cryptic. When I say " - a + um" I mean "subtract 'a' and add 'um'". This is best illustrated with examples:

vega, veg

ek veg

vit/vér vegum

þú vegr

þit/þér vegið

hann/hon/þat vegr

þeir/þær/þau vega

heita, heiti

ek heiti

vit/vér heitum

þú heitir

þit/þér heitið

hann/hon/þat heitir

þeir/þær/þau heita

taka, tek

ek tek

vit/vér tökum (explained below)

þú tekr

þit/þér takið

hann/hon/þat tekr

þeir/þær/þau taka

segja, segi

ek segi

vit/vér segjum

þú segir

þit/þér segið (explained below)

hann/hon/þat segir

þeir/þær/þau segja

kalla, kalla (to call)

ek kalla

vit/vér köllum

þú kallar

þit/þér kallið

hann/hon/þat kallar

þeir/þær/þau kalla

hafa, hefi (to have, wear, carry)

ek hefi

vit/vér höfum

þú hefir

þit/þér hafið

hann/hon/þat hefir

þeir/þær/þau hafa

And now for one verb that is almost regular, but not quite:

sjá, sé (to see)

ek sé

vit/vér sjám (not *sjáum)

þú sér

þit/þér séð (not *sjáið)

hann/hon/þat sér

þeir/þær/þau sjá

A u in a grammatical ending always changes a preceding 'a' to an 'ö'. This is known as u-mutation and is treated in more detail later.

The letters 'j' and 'i' cannot coexist; for this reason we have 'segið' and not '*segjið'.

We won't use the infinitive just yet but it is still one of two forms of each verb you need to memorise.

The verb 'á' does not follow this pattern, it is conjugated in lesson 3.

The forms 'sjáum' and 'sjáið' are correct in later Icelandic.

1.7 "Er" - an all purpose relative pronoun

Relative pronouns are words like 'who, which, that'. In Norse we have one very useful word that can play the role of all those. The word is 'er' and it should not be confused with the 3rd person singular of the verb "to be". An example will be in order.

The people (that) he sees are Norwegians.

Relative pronoun can be dropped.

Menninir, er hann sér, eru Norðmenn.

Relative pronoun cannot be dropped.

We say that the relative pronoun represents a word from the main sentence in the case appropriate for the verb in the relative clause. Since the word 'er' is the same in all cases this is mostly a technical thing and need not be worried overly about. We will, somewhat arbitrarily, separate all relative clauses in Norse with commas.

1.8 The present tense

So far we have only been discussing the present tense of verbs. The ON present tense actually corresponds to two forms in English.

Víkingarnir koma.

The vikings come.

Víkingarnir koma.

The vikings are coming.

When translating remember to use the most natural English form.

1.9 Word order

While word order in Old Norse is fairly free there are usually some things that are more normal than others. The normal word order in a simple sentence is, as in English: "subject verb object". Another common word order is "verb subject object". The greatest emphasis in a sentence is usually on the first word. Thus, if we want to draw special attention to the object we can use "object verb subject". Other word-order schemes are usually reserved for elaborate poetry.

Where do you put the negating word "eigi"? Those examples will illustrate the variety of normal structures. Do not be overwhelmed by this, there is little need to memorise every possible pattern, you will slowly become familiar with normal word order in reading the translation exercises.

Subject-verb-object

Hann sér eigi úlfinn.

Hann sér úlfinn eigi.

Verb-subject-object

Sér hann úlfinn eigi.

Sér hann eigi úlfinn.

Eigi sér hann úlfinn.

Object-verb-subject

Úlfinn sér hann eigi.

All the legal sentences above have one thing in common: "The verb is always the first or the second word in the sentence." This phenomenon is known as V2 and is treated in more detail later in the course.

Other adverbs are usually placed in the same way.

2. Vocabulary

2.1 Nouns

maðr

person, man, human being (declension described in 1.5)

Norðmaðr

Norwegian (declines like maðr)

Then two words whose declension we described in 1.4.

hrafn

raven

jarl

earl

The rest of the words given are regular strong masculine.

bátr

boat

geirr

spear

Íslendingr

Icelander

vargr

wolf

víkingr

viking

þjófr

thief

And for good measure we also list the names used in the lesson. You should never forget that names behave as any other nouns. They decline according to their declension group.

Eiríkr

Erlingr

2.2 Pronouns

er

that, which, who, whom

Also remember to memorise the masculine pronoun in plural.

Nom. þeir (they)

Acc. þá (them)

2.3 Verbs

The verbs from lesson one are reiterated here for easy reference.

hafa, hefi

have, hold, wear

hata, hata

hate

heita, heiti

be called

deyja, dey

die

bíða, bíð

wait

koma, køm

come

mæla, mæli

talk

sjá, sé

see

vega, veg

slay

segja, segi

says

taka, tek

take

sjá (irregular)

see

vera (irregular)

be

á

owns (only form of this verb yet presented)

2.4 Adverbs

nú

now

þar

there

2.5 A greeting

The following forms can be used as greetings. This is actually an adjective that is declining according to gender and number but we'll talk about that later.

Heill! - to greet one man

Heil! - to greet one woman

Heilir! - to greet a group of men

Heilar! - to greet a group of women

Heil! - to greet a group including both sexes

2.6 Yes or no questions

To change a statement into a question you use the word order

Verb-subject-(object/complement)

And often you add the word 'hvárt' in front.

Hvárt er hann hér?

Er hann hér?

But it's not good fashion to answer a yes or no question with yes or no! That's almost never done in the Old Icelandic texts. Instead you just repeat the question as a statement.

Question: Hvárt er hann hér?

Answer: Hann er hér.

Oh, alright, we can tell you the words:

já

yes

nei

no

2.7 Sample sentences

Norðmenn hata Íslendinga.

Subject: Norðmenn [nominative, plural, without article]

Object: Íslendinga [accusative, plural, without article]

Meaning: Norwegians hate Icelanders.

Hatar konungrinn úlfa.

Subject: konungrinn [nominative, singular, with article]

Object: úlfa [accusative, plural, without article]

Meaning: The king hates wolfs.

Þeir eru Norðmenn.

Subject: þeir [nominative, plural]

Complement: Norðmenn [nominative, plural, without article]

Meaning: They are Norwegians.

Brandrinn, er hann á, heitir Tyrfingr.

Subject in main sentence: brandrinn [nominative, singular, with article]

3.4 Translate the text into Old Norse

A man is called Eiríkr. He owns (some) helmets, (some) boats and a spear. He is a viking. He kills people and takes boats. But Eiríkr is not a thief. Thieves don't kill. Now Eiríkr sees Óláfr and the Serpent. He kills Óláfr and takes the Serpent.

3.5 Translate the play into English

[Óláfr bíðr.]

Óláfr: Ek sé mann!

[maðr kømr]

Maðr: Heill Óláfr konungr! Ek heiti Eiríkr ok ek em Íslendingr.

Óláfr: Heill Eiríkr!

Eiríkr: Hvárt sér þú orminn þar, konungr?

Óláfr: Eigi sé ek orm.

Eiríkr: En hann er hér!

[nú sér Óláfr orminn]

Óláfr: Ormr! Ek sé orm!

Ormr: Óláfr! Ek sé Óláf!

Eiríkr: Segir ormrinn "Óláfr"?

Ormr: Nei. Ormar mæla eigi.

[Óláfr ok Eiríkr flýja]

3.6 Translate the play into English

[Eiríkr, þjófr ok víkingr, sér Orm, bát er Óláfr á]

Eiríkr: "Þar er bátr!"

[Haukr, Íslendingr, mælir]

Haukr: "Óláfr á bátinn."

[Óláfr kømr]

Óláfr: "Menn sé ek!"

Eiríkr ok Haukr: "Vit erum hér."

Óláfr: "Hvárt takið þit bátinn?"

Eiríkr ok Haukr: "Vit tökum hann eigi."

Óláfr: "Ormr heitir bátrinn. Ek á Orm"

[Eiríkr ok Haukr kalla]

E & H: "Úlfr! Úlfr! Þar er úlfr!"

Óláfr: "Úlfr? Ek hata úlfa!"

[Úlfr, Norðmaðr ok þjófr, kømr]

Óláfr: "Ek sé eigi úlf. Hvárt er hér úlfr?"

Úlfr: "Hér em ek, Óláfr konungr."

[Eiríkr, Haukr ok Úlfr taka bátinn ok flýja]

Óláfr: "Þjófar! Ek hata þjófa!"

E, H & Ú: "Vér erum víkingar, vér höfum bát er heitir Ormr!"

4. Looking at real texts

4.1 Half a stanza by Snorri Sturluson

Drífr handar hlekkr

þar er hilmir drekkr.

Mjök er brögnum bekkr

blíðskálar þekkr.

This half-stanza will not look recognisable to you, indeed it shouldn't, it is a complicated poetic passage. But we will apply the principles set forth earlier [The Norse and English tongues] to help us with individual words.

Some we can guess at without thought; 'handar' looks like it's a cognate of 'hand' and 'drífr' could be a cognate of 'drive'. We are right on both accounts; 'handar' means 'of hand' but while 'drífr' is indeed related to 'drive' in this case it means 'snows'. Compare with the English word '(snow)drift'.

The next word is 'hlekkr'. Doesn't look familiar. But English dropped all h's in front of consonants, maybe if we change it to 'lekkr'. Looks better but we need to do more. The cluster 'nk' was frequently assimilated to 'kk' in Old Norse, maybe we need to reverse such a change. Then we've got 'lenkr'. Of course English doesn't have r as a grammatical ending, out it goes. New result 'lenk'. Still not an English word but let's remember that vowels are more prone to change than consonants. If we change the 'e' to an 'i' then we've finally made it to 'link' which is the right word.

It's a good and correct guess that 'þar' means 'there'. In this context 'þar er' means 'where'.

What might 'hilmir' be? No way to figure that one out, it means
'king'. The word is related to 'hjálmr' and refers to the fact that kings tend to bear helmets.

Then there's 'drekkr'. We apply the same rules as before; Norse 'kk' can be English 'nk' and English doesn't have 'r' as a grammatical ending. Then we've got 'drenk'. Maybe if we change the vowel to 'i' as before. Hocus-pocus we've got 'drink' which is correct. More specifically 'drekkr' means 'drinks'.

Let's look at that first sentence in toto.

"Drífr handar hlekkr þar er hilmir drekkr."

The subject is 'handar hlekkr' which means 'link of the hand'. And what does _that_ mean? It is a poetic paraphrase for 'gold'. The verb is 'drífr' which means 'snows'. Then 'þar er' means 'where', 'hilmir' means 'king' and 'drekkr' means 'drinks'.

"(The) link of the hand [gold] snows where (the) king drinks."

This sentence is quite typical of Norse court poetry; praise of the king's generosity in florid language.

Let's look at the second sentence.

The word 'mjök' means 'very'. The English cognate is 'much'.
You already know that 'er' can mean 'is'. Such is the case here.
The word 'brögnum' doesn't have an English cognate. It means 'for men' and is a poetic word.

Then there's 'bekkr'. In with the n, out with the r! We've got 'benk'. Hmm... The correct cognate is 'bench' and the meaning is the same.

The word-form 'blíðskálar' is made out of 'blíð' and 'skálar'. The first is an adjective cognate to English 'blithe'. The second is the possessive form of 'skál' which means 'bowl'. Modern Scandinavians can often be heard shouting this word. Skál! Skål! Toast!

Last word: 'þekkr'. Once more we change 'kk' into 'nk' and get 'thenk'. The correct cognate is 'thank' but the word means 'comfortable' rather than 'thankful'.

If we draw together the second sentence.

"Mjök er brögnum bekkr blíðskálar þekkr."

Meaning: "The bench of the blithe bowl is very comfortable for men."

And who doesn't like sitting and drinking...

In summary we could guess correctly at the meaning of many words: 'handar, drekkr, blíð, hlekkr, bekkr' but we also had some whose cognates didn't help us much: 'drífr, þekkr'. This is quite typical.

Do not rely on cognate trickery but use it, where it applies, as an aid to memory.

4.2 Two half-strophes from the Sigdrífumál

- - -

Heill Dagr!

Heilir Dags synir!

Heil Nótt ok nipt!"

- - -

- - -

Heilir Æsir!

Heilar Ásynjur!

Heil sjá in fjölnýta fold!"

- - -

Compare the greeting carefully with chapter 2.5;
notice how it changes according to gender and number.